Although Groton’s dining hall provides the community with a wide variety of meals every day, students often miss food from home. Here are some of the dishes students and faculty members enjoy at home.

Kenji’s Osechi

For the New Year dinner, Kenji cooks for family and friends. He enjoys making osechi, a collection of colorful Japanese dishes packed in boxes. The dishes in osechi range from ebi or shrimp simmered in soy sauce to tazukuri, sweet sardines with sesame seeds. Rather simple preparation, nimono is a vegetable stew with shiitake mushroom and carrot. By sharing foods in boxes, Kenji uses osechi to bond with his close ones and kick off the New Year right.

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Daniel “OJ” Ojeda’s Homemade Bread

Cooking for yourself allows you to try out different styles and techniques. Coach OJ thinks back to last September when he started baking bread: “My first day of baking was not so successful, but after several trials and errors, I was able to manipulate my own recipe.” He adds berries and changes up the types of flour to liven up the flavor of his bread.

Nate Johnson ’24’s Empanadas

It is rewarding not only to plan meals for yourself, but also to share delicious food with others. Nate Johnson ’24 developed a passion for cooking after his first try making empanadas.
Making it for his whole family, Nate recalls, “I felt very accomplished when my family complimented my dish.”

Kira Schivaone ’24’s Dumplings
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Mandu are Korean dumplings filled with pork, noodles, onions and a plethora of other ingredients. “It tastes so much better when I share them with my brothers,” said Kira Schivaone ’24. The chewy skin and fillings embody Korean culture, and similar to a pouch of money given in holidays called bokjumeoni, one wishes for good luck by enclosing these delightful dumplings.

Aria Nahm ’25’s Egg in a Hole

Cooking can be as simple as making a breakfast meal. “My parents work everyday, so we cook together on weekends,” said Aria Nahm ’25. “Cooking helps me feel more connected to my parents.” Frying an egg at the center of hollowed-out bread is all one needs to do for this tasty meal.

Dilzafer Singh ’25’s Butter Chicken

Dilzafer Singh ’25 relishes his mom’s butter chicken, a savory and creamy dish with a blended masala curry that is made with his great-grandmother’s recipe. Dilzafer refers to this North Indian dish as “the perfect meal to come home to after Saturday classes.”

Ben Milner ’24’s Hamburger

On a sunny summer evening, a bite of smoky, rich burger can blow you away. Hungry, Ben Milner ’24 prepares a meal with his friends. After grilling the patties, Ben uses ingredients such as lettuce, onion, and cheese to dress up the burger. By creating their own version of the recipe, Ben and his friends strengthen their bond.